WEDC CEO Mark Hogan says he’s hoping to recruit people who, like him, are at the later stage of their careers to work for the agency.
That’s so the agency can help stop its high-level departures, with three officials planning to leave just as Hogan has stepped in as the new CEO at WEDC. Those departures include the vice president of credit and risk, the vice president of human resources and the fifth chief financial officer since the agency began.
Hogan said at a WEDC board meeting Wednesday he wants to fill the roles with people whose “primary goal would be to make a meaningful impact and provide service to our state.”
“We will cast the net as wide as possible, [but] we’re looking for somebody like me, somebody that’s approaching the end of their career,” Hogan said.
He said, however, those three upcoming departures “are coincidental,” with each person taking on high-paying opportunities “that have greater responsibility.”
But Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha and a WEDC board member, expressed concerns over the three departures. He said they add to an already high level of turnover at the agency.
“I really think we have to analyze with this big of a turnover, what’s leading this?” Barca said. “I’m sure we must be doing exit interviews, but it’s got to be more than a coincidence.”
Barca suggested WEDC officials begin evaluating whether potential employees view the job as a “steppingstone” to other opportunities, a point Hogan said he’s in “absolute agreement” with.
Barca also said the agency could’ve done more to prevent Oscar Mayer from leaving Madison.
He used as an example a headline in the Isthmus newspaper from summer that suggested the company could leave Madison following a merger involving its parent company.
WEDC should be more actively looking for warning signs companies might leave Wisconsin and then try to see how those jobs can be retained, Barca said.
“We knew Oscar Mayer was looking to leave. There’s no question about it,” Barca said.
Tricia Braun, the agency’s chief operating officer and deputy secretary, said WEDC already has partnerships with local organizations on job retention and expansion efforts, pointing to a WEDC platform local groups can use to identify warning signs and develop retention strategies.
She also pointed to training seminars the Wisconsin Economic Development Association puts together on company retention and expansion.
“This is just a reminder of the importance of having those programs at the local level,” Braun said.
— By Polo Rocha
WisBusiness.com
